The Meaning of Names
by quicksilversquared
Summary: Sabine Cheng knew that her husband liked puns. She had known it for a while, and yet she still let him name their only daughter, no questions asked. (or "How Marinette ended up with a name that meant "The One Who Rises From Bread)


Tom Dupain's last name was a pun. It was something Sabine had learned within her first month of dating him, after she asked why his just-opened business was called _Dupain Boulangerie._ She had asked why he hadn't called it _Tom's Boulangerie_ instead, and Tom had responded with a booming laugh.

" _Dupain_ means 'from bread'," he explained with a wide, cheerful smile. "I couldn't resist. It's a _bread pun_."

Sabine had sighed, shook her head, and rolled her eyes at her then-boyfriend's affinity for punning. Tom renamed his (their) bakery a few months later when Sabine joined him and they got engaged. Soon their business had picked up enough for them to move into a larger space in a nicer neighborhood with a lovely large apartment over the bakery, and the small bakery named for a _pun_ was more or less forgotten in the hustle and bustle of running what was fast becoming Paris' best bakery. It was impossible to forget the hidden meaning of Tom's last name- after all, his brothers absolutely _loved_ making jokes about someone named "Dupain" running a bakery- and it was impossible to forget Tom's love of puns, but to Sabine it gradually became background noise, something to roll her eyes at but not spare a lot of thought on.

And then Sabine got pregnant.

"She's going to be beautiful," Tom gushed as soon as they found out that they were going to be parents to a baby girl. "I hope she looks like you, dear."

Sabine blushed and ducked her head, _still_ bashful after five years of marriage. How was she supposed to respond to _that?_ " We still need to come up with a name for her."

"Can we name her Marinette?" Tom asked immediately, and Sabine could find no reason to argue. It was a gorgeous name, after all, and Tom looked so eager. She was about to ask him how he had come to pick that name- was it a family name, perhaps?- when the ovens chimed and Tom had to hurry to take the huge batch of buns out of the oven. Sabine shrugged, smiling down at her swollen stomach.

 _Marinette Dupain-Cheng_. The name was perfect.

-asdhkjfhsdfkjhdfkj-

Sabine's first indication that maybe Marinette's name wasn't just an innocent choice on Tom's part came with the wave of letters of congratulations from Tom's side of the family, all filled to the brim with bread puns. Sabine had frowned, puzzled as she read the fifth letter that congratulated them on their "rising little bun".

Her husband's side of the family had been having an absolute field day with the "bun in the oven" jokes, but it wasn't until after they had told everyone Mariette's name that the "rising" part had suddenly cropped up, inexplicably and en masse. It would have been easy enough to ask Tom what his insane relatives were going on about, but Sabine was too tired to worry about it. She was too busy with Marinette and with overseeing the temporary help Tom had hired to do most of her work while she was busy with Marinette.

In fact, it wasn't until over three months after Marinette was born that Sabine finally realized exactly why Tom had chosen that particular name.

"Who's my little bun, hmm?" Tom was crooning at their squealing baby daughter as she grabbed at his large fingers. He hadn't spotted Sabine hovering by the door yet and she wasn't about to interrupt their father/daughter bonding time. "Yes, it's you, the one who rises from bread!"

Sabine blinked and frowned as Marinette continued giggling. _The one who rises from bread?_ That didn't make any sense whatsoever, unless-

 _From bread._ Dupain. She had known that _forever_. That alone wouldn't account for the jokes, and as Tom made crooning noises at baby Marinette, she slipped back down the hall. It was time for a little internet search, clearly, and it didn't take long for Sabine to find out the meaning of the name Marinette.

 _The one who rises._

Of course. And _clearly_ , since Tom had been making jokes about it, he had known full well what the meaning of the name Marinette was. He had _planned_ to make their only daughter's name a pun...and Sabine couldn't even find it in herself to be mad at him for it; after all, _Marinette_ was a gorgeous name, and it was hardly as though anybody outside of the family was going to find out.

Probably.

-sdfghjskdgh-

Marinette didn't realize the meaning behind her name until she was twelve. She had been doing some sort of project for school that involved looking up name meanings.

When she heard a frustrated yell from upstairs, Sabine glanced upwards, figured that Marinette must be having a hard time finding a good name-meaning website, and went back to cooking dinner. A moment later, footsteps pounding down the stairs made Sabine look back up. A fuming Marinette had just reached the bottom.

"' _The one who rises from bread?_ '"

"Blame your father, dear," Sabine said mildly, looking back at her recipe so that Marinette wouldn't see her lips twitching in amusement. The little inside joke had grown on her over the years. "He was the one who picked out your name. I had no idea until three months after you were born."

Marinette huffed and shot out the door, clattering down the stairs towards the bakery. Sabine could hear Marinette's roar of "DAD!" as her daughter raced down the stairs. She had to chuckle at Marinette's ire. The discovery really had come at the worst time, since only the other day Tom's brothers had visited and decided to run through the full gauntlet of their bread jokes and puns. Marinette had rolled her eyes in fond exasperation for the first few, but by the time Marinette stomped off to bed Sabine suspected that Marinette had probably had enough bread puns for a _month_.

Ah, she would get over it eventually. It wasn't as though it was the most obvious pun in the world.

"Miss Bustier is going to call on people at random to tell the class what they've found!" Marinette's voice floated up the stairs, still sounding upset. "And my luck is _awful_ , I'm going to get called on and then Chloe is going to make fun of me for the rest of my _life_ , all because you thought it would be funny to name me for a _pun!_ "

Sabine, still eavesdropping from the door of the living room, winced at that and started heading down the stairs.

"It wasn't _just_ for the pun," Tom said a bit sheepishly as Sabine joined them at the base of the stairs. "I thought it was a pretty name as well. The pun was just a bonus."

Marinette only pouted.

"I can email Miss Bustier tonight," Sabine said when it was clear that Marinette was still very, very unhappy. "She'll understand, I'm sure. No one in your class will find out, I promise."

Marinette perked up immediately. "Thank you, mom! You're the best!"

-ssdhfkjsdhfk-

 _Several years later_

"How did your parents choose your name, Adrien? Do you know?" Tom asked as their daughter's not-a-boyfriend (yet) sat on the couch, waiting for Marinette to finish getting ready for their trip to the Louvre for a class research project.

Adrien looked slightly puzzled at the question- which was fair, Sabine supposed, since it was an odd thing to ask about- but answered nonetheless. "It's a name from my mother's side of the family. I think her grandfather had a brother named Adrien, or something like that."

Tom nodded seriously though his eyes were twinkling with mirth, making Sabine immediately suspicious of his motives. "It's a very nice name. Do you know what your name means?"

Adrien blinked, obviously even more puzzled. He sent a glance up at Marinette's closed bedroom door, almost if he was looking for some sort of escape. "The meaning, sir?"

Meanwhile, Sabine's lips twitched up with amusement as she realized what Tom was trying to do. The last time Adrien had come over Tom had been delighted to find that Adrien absolutely loved his puns and the two had engaged in a bread pun battle as Adrien waited for Marinette to grab something from her room. Adrien would probably find the pun in Marinette's name just as hilarious as Tom himself did.

Marinette herself would not be pleased with them, but they could deal with that later.

Tom nodded eagerly. "Most names have some sort of meaning associated with them and some parents choose their children's names based on those meanings."

Adrien was _really_ looking puzzled at the direction the conversation had gone now. "O...kay? Uh, did your parents choose your name that way, sir?"

"Oh, no, not at all," Tom said, looking appropriately downtrodden. "'Tom' doesn't seem to have any particularly interesting meaning, but 'Dupain' does. It translates as 'from bread'."

Adrien's eyebrows shot up and he barked out a laugh. "That's really cool, given, uh-"

"His brothers love cracking jokes about it," Sabine cut in.

"And while _my_ parents didn't pick my name based on name meaning, we picked Marinette's name based on its meaning," Tom continued. "' _Marinette_ ' means 'the one who rises."

Adrien blinked, momentarily confused before a smile started to spread across his face. "So her full name translates to-"

"' _The one who rises from bread_ ' _!_ " Tom chortled, looking thrilled as Adrien grinned.

"Are you serious?"

"Pa _pa!_ " Marinette complained loudly from where she had appeared the top of the stairs. Her cheeks were bright red, Sabine noted in amusement, and she looked absolutely _mortified_. She had long since forgiven Tom for naming her because of a _pun,_ but clearly telling her not-a-boyfriend was a little too much if the 'how _could_ you?' look she had directed at both of her parents was any indication. Marinette clattered the rest of the way down the stairs quickly, clutching her bag to her side. "Come on, Adrien, let's get going."

Adrien popped up from the couch immediately, joining Marinette at the door. "See you later, Mr. Dupain and Mrs. Cheng," he said politely, nodding to each of them. "Thank you for the snacks."

"It was no problem, dear," Sabine managed before Marinette tugged Adrien out of the room. The door swung closed behind the two teens

"I think it's cool that your name is a bread pun," they heard Adrien say as they headed down the stairs. "And your name is pretty."

"R-really?"

"I've been saying that for _years,_ " Tom sniffed as the two rushed to the window to keep eavesdropping on the teens' conversation. "And _now_ she listens?"

Sabine elbowed him. " _Tom_."

"What? It's _true_."

" _Tom_."

They watched as the teens slid into the back seat of Adrien's family car. The car started up with barely a noise, and soon they were pulling away, headed for the museum to get started on their project.

"So," Tom said as they watched the car round the corner and vanish. "Do you think any of our grandchildren will be named for a pun?"


End file.
